Pope blames atheists for destruction of the global environment

Is it not true that inconsiderate use of creation begins where God is marginalized or also where his existence is denied? If the human creature's relationship with the Creator weakens, matter is reduced to egoistic possession, man becomes the "final authority," and the objective of existence is reduced to a feverish race to possess the most possible.

Is it not true that inconsiderate use of creation begins where God is marginalized or also where his existence is denied? If the human creature's relationship with the Creator weakens, matter is reduced to egoistic possession, man becomes the "final authority," and the objective of existence is reduced to a feverish race to possess the most possible.

I really hate it when people continue to spread misinformation. It only serves to undermine our valid arguments and criticisms of our opponents.

Joseph Ratzinger was conscripted (forced) into the Hitler Youth, as membership was required for all German boys over the age of 14 after December, 1939. It's also been documented that he was unenthusiastic about his membership, refusing to attend meetings. One of his cousins was even killed by the Nazi regime because he had down syndrome. His father was noted as a bitter enemy of Nazism, believing it conflicted with his Catholic faith.

It's not just that, I often hear people use that statement as a reason for dismissing everything that Pope Benedict XVI says and does, or to say "of course he's evil, he was a Nazi". It's not just atheists either, I've heard the same argument come from protestants as justification for their hatred of all things Catholic.

Absolutely Aiden. It doesn't help at all, and just makes us look like clowns. The basic facts are, if he was born in Moscow, he would have been a Politburo junior, or London, a boy scout.

This makes me cringe for the same reasons that I cringe when I see effigies being burnt at globalisation protests. It is cheap and dirty outrage peddling, of the type that we so love to loathe from Faux News. We should not use the enemies methods.

That said, your humour is way too subtle for some folks Jack. Keep it up.

Seems to me the Pope is applying a little misdirection here. The biblical command, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth" (Gen. 1:28) has been obeyed with a vengeance and a concommitant cost to the environment. Attempts to mitigate that reckless (and feckless) population explosion are consistantly frustrated not by the egoistic pursuit of possessions by men using themselves as "final authority," but the egoistic obsession with, and absolutist interpretation of, Bronze Age religious injunctions like Genesis 1:28 as the "final authority."

matter is reduced to egoistic possession, man becomes the "final authority," and the objective of existence is reduced to a feverish race to possess the most possible.

It's ironic when a guy, (who really is considered by Catholics to be the "final authority"), lives in a palace and preaches to people about possessing the most. But hey, he couldn't be pope if he wasn't a hypocrite. Also, I guess he didn't see that some of the most atheist countries (like Sweden and Finland) are also the greenest.

He could also:

-Save a couple of rain forests a year if they just stopped printing bibles.
-Get the Christians to stop chugging the Muslims' black gold.
-Tell the flock to stop their useless praying, get off their asses, and go clean up the neighborhood.